BY ANNA HOLLESEN
The BHS music trip is a staple of the music department here in Beverly—a chance to go away from school with all your friends for multiple days packed with fun. Many students anticipate the trip months or even years in advance. It serves as a captivating introduction to the music department for rising high school students. This annual April excursion has been creating lasting memories for the students for the past few decades.
Mr. Costa, the BHS band director, was in charge of planning and scheduling the trip this year as Ms. PK, the previous chorus teacher, retired last year—many elements in planning the trip that required months in advance.
“The music trip, (planning) for any given year,” Mr Costa said, “starts getting planned the previous July.”
Nearly a year of planning to have a couple of days of heavily packed fun, from playing at a school and visiting a zoo to a concert. This year without Ms. PK put a lot more planning into the hands of Mr. Costa requiring him to learn all the parts she previously did.
“Creating the daily itinerary going through literally from, okay, we’re getting up at 6 a.m. We’re going to be back at the hotel by 11 p.m.” Mr. Costa said, “What does that window of time look like in between? And going through hour by hour, in some cases, minute by minute”
This year, I’m following the BHS Music Department as they traverse the sights and sounds of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“I am excited to return there. This will be the music department’s second trip to Philadelphia since I came to the high school in 2012.” Mr. Costa said, “The last time we went was 2018, and we’re doing a lot of the same activities and going to the same locations that we did then.”
The locations include the Philadelphia Zoo, the Constitution Center, Eastern State Penitentiary, King of Prussia Mall, Valley Forge, Philadelphia Art Museum, and a Symphony Orchestra viewing, along with some other smaller activities in between. The trip is for four days, the school concert is on the first day with the other activities scattered throughout the next two days leaving the last day for returning home to Beverly.
The first day starts right at six am sharp with students arriving at the school to prepare to depart. Some students helped organize and pack bags into the two buses while the rest of the students went into the school for attendance before heading off. The six-hour bus ride had a break at about three hours before continuing to West Windsor-Plainsboro HS South in New Jersey for the performance and dinner. The performance was organized with each musical group going separately before both schools performed together.
“This school is really nice, and other people were really nice, which made it a better experience. They had, like, name tags for us all and signs for where we should go,” Delia Gouker, a BHS Sophomore said, “And they had designated people for each section to, kind of, just hang out with us and, like, welcome us, and it was fun to hang out with them.”
The school was rather nice and a lot more organized than last year, “I feel like it might have been a little bit more structured, and there weren’t as many bumps on the road. So it was nice and smooth,” Alannah Foss, class of 2026, said, making the rehearsals easier to get through and easily get through the concert making it rather efficient.
After the concert, we headed towards the hotel in Pennsylvania to get some rest for the night. The next morning began at six am leaving the hotel at around eight-thirty for the Philadelphia Zoo. This is the first zoo in America started in 1874 and contains nearly 2,000 animals according to its website.
“I liked the monkeys. I think they were silly. ” BHS Junior, Jackson Murphy said some were swinging around, “It’s cool, seeing the human-like tendencies in some of them.”
We saw a variety of other animals such as penguins, rhinos, and otters. Some that we could interact with.
“I particularly liked the petting zoo because I got to pet goats and giraffes,” Gouker said.
We departed from the zoo after a few hours and then did a tour of the Constitution Center area with brief stops to talk about what was around, such as the old president’s house, or the Liberty Bell. The tour was about an hour long before meeting back at a park to recuperate before a brief break between the center and the next activity, the Eastern State Penitentiary
walking to the Reading Terminal Market—filled with many food stalls similar to Quincy Market or Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston.
“It’s very crowded. Very crowded. But the food was good,” Murphy said, “It’s like if you took Faneuil Hall and made it as wide as it is long.”
Spending about an hour there before heading back to the buses to go to the penitentiary. The prison was one of the first prisons in the form that we consider today with prison cells and isolation for the prisoners. It was built up with tall walls enclosing the space with gates closing off the penitentiary from the outside, preventing any prisons from having contact with the outside world.
“I really enjoyed visiting the penitentiary because of the immersiveness and the history that went along with it.” Mae Hector, a BHS Sophomore said, “It was really cool and interesting and I enjoyed exploring the cell blocks and other parts of the penitentiary.”
Once the audio tour was done in the prison, we were given some free time to wander around freely on our own. Then we met up once again in the center grass area to take the busses to the King of Prussia Mall. This is the third-largest mall in the United States. Here we came to have dinner and shop around for a bit. The mall had many long hallways with over 450 stores and over 30 eateries according to the website. The food court contained many places to get food and the food was rather average.
“The mall was very exciting and extremely big. I honestly wish we had a little more time there because of how much ground we needed to cover.” Foss, said, “Although it was a bit stressful, I also thought it was pretty cool.”
We left the mall after 2 hours, which was disappointing for many students as they wanted more time to spend shopping, but we headed back to the hotel around seven-thirty. Following arriving back, we were given free time to spend with each other for an hour before lights out.
The next morning we headed off to Valley Forge, a national park where George Washington was stationed during the third winter of the Revolutionary War in some of the worst conditions possible. Our tour was on the bus with some periodic stops off the bus to look at replicas of the houses the soldiers stayed in as well as some statues and memorials.
“I really liked the Valley Forge tour, we got to explore historical battlefields and camps at our own pace, and the tour guide made it very interesting and interactive.” JJ Niemann, class of 2026 said. “Exploring and hanging out with my friends was fun and made the experience that much better.”
A quick lunch break later and we headed off to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which finished being built in 1928 after over a decade. Being one of the country’s oldest art museums with over two hundred thousand pieces collected from all over the world. We ran up the famous Rocky Steps before heading inside the museum. The museum was beautiful, filled with tapestries and large art pieces everywhere. It was packed with historical and modern art and some particularly odd pieces.
“The museum was very pretty and all the art was very cool. It was a big museum and it was enjoyable to walk around. There was a cafe that was fun to sit in and the food was good as well.” Caleb Hathaway, a BHS Sophomore.
Preceding the museum we went to Dave and Buster’s for dinner and some fun. Dinner was served buffet style and then we were given a card to play some games. Multiple people played some air hockey matches and got many prizes. Such as ducks, stuffed otters, and other things were collected as memorabilia from the trip. As our time closed there, people began changing to see the symphony orchestra at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts.
“Dave and Busters seem like an experience you could “get anywhere” but it was actually more fun than one might think.” BHS Sophomore, Audrey Talbot said, “I was able to hang out with people I don’t normally get to hang out with just because of scheduling and I was able to have an enjoyable experience with my most frequented friends as well.”
The Kimmel Center for Performing Arts was an incredible place to be. There were buildings inside of buildings. It was very modern with three floors to reach the top of the building we’d be going inside for the performance. The orchestra played Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 and Mozart’s Requiem for two hours. Inside was a beautiful three-story concert hall that had balconies making a cello-shape.
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to see such a talented group of performers, in such a beautiful building.” Brena Connell, class of 2026 “It was inspiring to see such professional players as a musician myself. I loved hearing experienced trombone players play these gorgeous pieces.”
By the time the concert was over it was rather late and we headed back to the hotel for the night to prepare for returning to Beverly the next day. The morning was filled with packing and preparing for the six-hour bus ride back. And with that final bus trip along with a quick lunch break before arriving back in Beverly, the BHS Music Trip concluded.
“I had a wonderful time! I love the people I got to spend time with, the trip has been crucial to my group (String Ensemble) and our friendship.” Miranda Harrington, a BHS Sophomore said, “It brings us together, and we have become like family over the past couple of years.”
